An anonymous source told the blog IfYouOnlyNews that Baltimore Fox 45’s news director ordered a reporter to deceptively edit a video to make it appear as though peaceful protesters were chanting “Kill a Cop” during a Washington DC demonstration, Addicting Info reported.
The protesters actually chanted, “We won’t stop; we won’t stop; ‘til killer cops; are in cell blocks!” The source told IYON that news director Mike Tomko told investigative journalist Melinda Roeder to “cut and run the story that way,” with the footage incorrectly depicting protesters as saying “We won’t stop; we can’t stop; so kill a cop!”
Roeder has since been fired from Fox 45 and Sinclair broadcasting, which the source told IYON was merely the station using Roeder as a “scapegoat.”
IYON’s Dylan Hock reached out to Roeder, who confirmed in an email that “the story idea and video originated with a manager who makes all content decisions.”
Hock also received an email from a Fox 45 insider who said that evidence existed that producer Scott Taylor had “expressed an opposition to running the piece,” and told Tomko that he did not want to “run the story as it was, seeing that it was clearly lacking context, etc.,” but was told to run the story anyway.
Tomko received just a one-day suspension, and Taylor received a two-day suspension.
Sources also told Baltimore’s City Paper that Tomko has lost control of the newsroom, “with photographers threatening to stage a ‘sick out.’”
“The reporters and photogs believe Tomko sacrificed two little people to save himself,” the source said.
The deceptive footage came to light after Tawanda Jones, the woman leading the chant, saw the edited video and confronted Fox 45 about it.
Watch footage of both the edited and unedited chants below, and Jones’s response to Fox 45 over their actions.
